Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum kicks off 'family tour' in Iowa all alone while wife and seven children sleep in

Rick Santorum billed his gruelling 50-stop 'family tour' across Iowa as a way to jump-start is badly-lagging presidential campaign.

But the former Pennsylvania senator's first stop Monday morning looked almost as lonely as his poll numbers in the key Midwest state.

Mr Santorum showed up all by himself at 8:30 am and sheepishly told reporters that his wife and all seven of his children decided not to come, choosing instead to sleep in after their 16-hour cross-country drive the night before.

All alone: Rick Santorum's family opted to sleep in, rather than make it out to an 8:30 a.m. campaign stop

'The kids are going to be fishing and four-wheeling and doing some fun stuff today,' he told the Des Moines Register.

All in the family: Mr Santorum hopes his three-week trip across Iowa will jump start his lagging campaign

'Not that this isn’t fun … but they deserve a break today. I’ll be seeing them tomorrow night.'

Mr Santorum plans to trek across the state, whose caucus will be the first test of the 2012 Republican presidential candidates, in an attempt to 'give our little campaign a little shot in the arm.'

But he is in dead last place among all the major presidential hopefuls who are organizing in Iowa, with just 3.8 per cent support, according to polls.

All of them are coming along for the extended campaign tour of Iowa that will last until the state's straw poll August 13. The poll is an important early barometer of each candidate's strength ahead of the February 6 caucuses.